Time off for dependent care to be increased

Mary Jo Frank
Office of Communications

The
number of sick days staff members can use to care for dependents will
double to six annually as of Jan. 1, Provost Nancy Cantor announced
amid cheers at a noon dialogue session last Wednesday. The session,
featuring Cantor and President Lee C. Bollinger, was attended by more
than 600 women staff members.

The 90-minute program began with short statements by Bollinger and
Cantor, followed by questions, which were fielded by both of them, as
well as by Jackie R. McClain, executive director of Human Resources
and Affirmative Action, and by Laurita Thomas, human resources
administrator and associate director of personnel for the Medical
Center Human Resources Department.

The dialogue was moderated by Carol Hollenshead, director of the
Center for the Education of Women (CEW) and chair of the
Presidents Advisory Commission on Womens Issues (PACWI).
Joining CEW and PACWI as sponsors were the Commission for Women,
Women of Color Task Force, Family Care Resources Program, Sexual
Assault Prevention and Awareness Center, and the Office of Equity and
Diversity in Human Resources and Affirmative Action.

In introducing Bollinger and Cantor, Hollenshead noted that the
U-Ms first female executive officer, then-Vice President for
Research Linda Wilson, was appointed in 1975. Today 50 percent of the
Universitys executive officers, including Cantor as the chief
academic officer, are women. Recognizing Bollinger, Hollenshead
stated, Now that is leadership.

Bollinger
said that he and the provost are appointing deans and other
administrators who share their values and trust that their
appointees, in turn, will do the same, leading eventually to an
institution that is infused with those valuesa process that
could take several years to see results, he acknowledged.

Staff are underappreciated in a university setting. This is
very unfortunate, Bollinger said. Your contributions need
to be acknowledged. It is important to make sure that your voices are
represented.

While the Universitys size and complexity are an advantage,
a large number of communities and constituencies can lead to a
pulling apart or splintering, Cantor said. One of our tasks is
to break down the boundaries between students, staff and
faculty, she added, to allow permeability in voice and
representation and interaction.

In addition to taking an incremental approach to womens
issues through administrative appointments, Cantor said that she and
the president are tackling components of larger issues. One area
where progress has been made, she said, is in compensation for lower
paid staff. Last year additional funds were allocated to increase the
base salaries of lower paid staff who are paid through the General
Fund. Assuming resources are available, similar increases are planned
for the next two years, she explained. Several other non-General Fund
units, including the Institute for Social Research and units inside
the Medical School and University Hospitals, launched their own
programs to improve salaries of lower paid staff, Cantor added.

Audience questions covered a range of topics, including
gender-based salary inequity; tolerance for intellectual and
lifestyle diversity; policies regarding professional development,
tuition reimbursement, and layoffs; flexible work schedules; parking
fees; and the effect of M-Pathways on work loads.

Audience members clapped and whistled at a staff members
suggestion that parking fees be converted to a sliding scale, based
on a percentage of salary. The speaker said it is unfair that staff
members who earn $20,000 per year pay as much for parking permits as
those who earn $80,000$150,000, while some of the
Universitys most highly compensated employees pay nothing.

Another question that resonated with the audience dealt with the
introduction of M-Pathways. Cantor acknowledged that M-Pathways,
which she said holds great promise, has placed additional burdens on
staff in the units and central administration. Unfortunately, she
said, we are not able to make it better right away.

When asked about the merits of part-time work, flextime and job
sharing, Cantor said the corporate world appears to have grasped the
benefits of offering employees flexibility in scheduling their work
more quickly than have academic institutions. Flexibility enhances
employee loyalty to the institution, she said, and the University has
a number of successful models under way.

Regarding professional development for staff, Bollinger said it is
very important that an institution with a core mission of teaching
apply that mission to staff too. We have a relationship with
you. If you want to develop skills, we should do everything to help
with that. Our attitude should be what can we do to
help? he added.

Individuals can enhance their own professional development while
improving the University community, Thomas said. She cited the Women
of Color Task Forces conference, attended by about 900 people
annually. The conference started with five or six women meeting on
their lunch hour to talk about career paths and the skills needed to
achieve promotions.

McClain invited staff to contact the Universitys human
resources offices when they have unaddressed concerns about the work
environment, policies and procedures, or benefits.

When there is a problem, Bollinger suggested another alternative:
Go as a group to the person in chargethe larger the group, the
better, he advised.